Saturday 16th June, Kymi 70km, rain, cloud, some sun later
As might have been noted, there is a short sulk of a post before this one as it rained for most of Saturday. Finally, at about 4pm it stopped and we hopped on Kymi to do the island tour we had promised ourselves for that day. Only now we had a few hours to do it in rather than all day.
First stop was La Flotte – best town on the island we were told. A small pretty port, we walked around the harbour in 5 minutes and zipped off again, onwards to St. Martin, the “capital” of the island. A larger version of La Flotte really, but with restricted vehicular access, unless you are on a bike or a scooter of course. We rode around that for a quick look and then carried on again.
There is one main road on the Ile de Ré so you cant really get lost. We followed it to the next village with a pretty church and on and on until we got to the lighthouse at the far end of the island. At that point it curls back on itself, like a shepherd’s crook, but we were feeling a bit cold and windswept so decided that this would be the furthest point for the day.
B flatly refused to climb up the steps in this one...
Then we went back, via, amusingly, Ars en Ré – in fact looking at the map (which I now do daily) Ars is quite a popular place name in France…. This one had another pretty church and lots of hollyhocks.
Hollyhocks and the only house on the island which doesnt have green shutters.
Sunday 17th June, Kymi 30km, hot, lots of sunshine!!
We woke to a beautiful sunny morning. We were supposed to drive 100 odd miles to Poitiers ready to catch the TGV for Paris on Monday. Unsurprisingly this was not a very appealing prospect. I called SNCF and changed the tickets to go from La Rochelle and so we (finally) hit the beach!! B now has an interesting shaped red patch on his back where the suntan lotion didn’t reach, and my nose is just beginning to calm down to a less Rudolf like tone.
Monday 18th June, TGV approx 600 miles, cloudy, spits and spots.
Up at 0600 ready for a taxi at 0650 to the station – and what a beautiful building. Actually its not that big, with only 2 platforms (great, easy to know where to go) and we easily caught the 0744 to Paris Montparnasse. 3 hours later we were drinking coffee in Paris near the Arc de Triomphe! 3 meetings later and another 3 hours on the TGV and we got back to Horatio at 930pm – long day.
Sadly it was all too much for the wheelie carpet bag which now has no stand, one wheel nearly off and the other stripped of its rubber. B knows now how glamorous (not) my trips to Paris really are.
Tuesday 19th June, 85 miles, more bloody rain
Time to head out again, but the Ile de Ré has made it onto the list of places we would come back to. We stopped for a look at Rochefort which could also take another visit as there is a lot to see. We settled for a nice lunch, a gawp at the size of the ropemakers building and a short wander through the “centre ville” when the rain stopped and the sun came out briefly.
Now we are in Cognac. Can’t imagine why we decided to come here…..
But for now, B is in another campsite bar watching another England football match – and at the same time the France match…. I realise from Dad’s texts that there have been games virtually every night for nearly 2 weeks now. I knew it was a good decision to set off on this adventure when we did!